Seriously Moving Images

One hundred years ago this week, the opening scene of a Canadian feature film was shot on Georgia Street in downtown Vancouver.

Vancouver filmmaker A. D. “Cowboy” Kean (1882-1961) was the first British Columbian to make a feature film. One hundred years ago, on May 7, 1924, he shot the opening scene in downtown Vancouver, in front of the old Courthouse (now the Vancouver Art Gallery). His historical epic Policing the Plains would depict the first fifty years of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police. Three and a half years in the making, the production was plagued by financial and technical problems. Sequences were shot in Vancouver, Victoria, Ladner, and the Cariboo, and at several locations in southern Alberta. The film finally had its Toronto premiere in December 1927—but it never went into general distribution, and is now considered lost.

NOTE: This story continues a thread with these blog posts:

• Dominion Day Sports in Lillooet (1914 or 1915)
• Vancouver 1914/15: Cowboy Kean and “Range Days”
• “Warden’s Warriors” leave for the Great War (Comox, June 1916)
• Summer 1920: The Picture Service
• March 1924: Cameras Roll in the South Cariboo

More details about Kean and his film can be found in John Mackie’s recent Vancouver Sun article.